Fragmented governance: Why roles and responsibilities are the antidote

Most organizations struggle with some degree of fragmentation in their governance. Data is tied to specific systems, clouds or business units, with no unifying framework. Policies differ by department. Standards vary by geography. Lineage is patchy or invisible. On the surface, this may look like harmless complexity. In practice, it erodes trust and slows innovation.

Fragmentation creates blind spots that affect every level of the enterprise:

Conflicting outcomes: When definitions and quality controls vary across teams, insights can’t be reconciled. Dashboards disagree, reports don’t align and leaders lose confidence in the data they use to make decisions
Compliance failures: Regulators demand clarity into how data is defined and used. Fragmented governance makes policies inconsistent, documentation incomplete and audits painful
Siloed innovation: When teams can’t find or trust the data they need, they waste time duplicating efforts or wait for usable datasets. Backlogs grow and opportunities are missed

Artificial intelligence puts these risks under a spotlight. What once looked like inefficiency in a report becomes a strategic liability when it powers a model that touches customers, regulators or patients. AI doesn’t create new governance challenges. It multiplies the consequences of the ones that already exist.

Here are the essential layers of a governance organization:

Executive sponsors (C-level leaders): Provides sponsorship and
high-level strategic direction for the data intelligence program, ensuring alignment with business strategy and priorities. Makes major program-
level decisions and communicates its importance across the organization
The data governance council (CDO, DG managers, VPs, IT leads): Translates strategic direction from the Steering Committee into governance plans. Approves the roadmap, structure and frameworks, allocates resources, and promotes the program across the enterprise. Includes Data Domain Leads alongside their leadership of domain teams

The stewardship community (directors, managers, chief stewards): Own and prioritize business requirements. Ensure compliance with data governance processes. Maintain the operating model, including reviewing and updating policies and rules, distributing them to stakeholders and overseeing how governance is applied across the organization
Data domain teams (stewards, SMEs, custodians): Govern data on the ground - defining, producing and governing data on a daily basis. Execute governance activities in line with business priorities, ensuring data standards and quality. Share knowledge and experience through collaboration and hackathons

Why roles and responsibilities matter

The solution to fragmentation isn’t just technology. It’s also about people. Clear roles,responsibilities and alignment between teams create the accountability and collaboration needed to unify governance across the enterprise.

This chain of accountability creates alignment from strategic oversight to day-to-day execution. It ensures that data
is reliable, traceable and compliant, and that every use case — whether it’s analytics, compliance reporting or AI —
can be scaled with confidence.

Data Citizens Dialogues Podcast

The secret to scaling governance without slowing down

Listen to our podcast with Axel Frank and Kevin Falkenstein of Siemens AG to explore how one of the world’s largest industrial manufacturers is tackling that challenge head-on.

The people problem
behind fragmentation

Without clear responsibilities, governance breaks down. Data gets lost in translation between business and IT, policies are applied unevenly and accountability disappears. With defined roles, everyone knows their part in creating trusted data.

Fragmentation, at its core, is a people problem as much as a systems problem. Technology provides the tools, but it’s the people who bring governance to life.

What layers have you already established in your organization?

Executive sponsors (C-level vision and support)
Governance council (policies and prioritization)
Stewardship community (standards and compliance)
Domain teams (day-to-day execution)